Sunday, May 21, 2006

[Destination: Earth Travel Blog] New Ways to Fly

In the past week Airbus took on its maiden flight their new A380 jet, the world's biggest passenger jet ever made. The new Airbus A380 has two internal decks for passengers, and can carry up to 555 people in separate classes or up to 800 in an all-economy configuration. Airbus has stated that 159 orders for the new jet have been received, and Singapore Airlines will be the first to take the jet on a commercial flight on its Sydney-Singapore-London route.

This new plane is huge, and Heathrow Airport has already rigged one of their gates to handle the A380's double deck configuration. Perhaps this will mean lower air fares? One can hope! Check out some pics of the Airbus flying over England taken by regular folk on the steets.

And on another rather strange concept from Airbus, who seems to be bent on pushing the envelope as far as passenger jets go, we get the standing-room only airplane. It seems Airbus has been pitching this idea to the Asian carriers first, though none seems to have gone for it (yet). The idea is that instead of seats, you get these recliner platforms to which you are strapped. I can somewhat see the advantage, but I'm far from convinced. What I truly wonder is, will you still be able to recline those 3/4 inch, and will is still make no difference? More at the New York Times.